Roblox VS Fortnite: Which one holds more brand potential?
Let's review the peculiarities of each platform
The Metaverse, a digital frontier where creativity and interaction know no bounds, is reshaping the business landscape. At the forefront of this transformation are two giants: Fortnite and Roblox.
Both platforms have captivated millions of users and offer exciting opportunities for businesses seeking to tap into this evolving virtual realm.
But when it comes to choosing the right field for your brand, which one should you opt for? In this blog, we’ll explore and compare Fortnite and Roblox from a business perspective.
Introduction
After the initial rush the web3 development, launching platforms, initiatives and social points aimed at changing the way we connect and engage with each other, companies like Roblox, which has been around for over 10 years; and Fortnite, which has been dynamically adapting to the trends, emerged as two attractive platforms where brands and companies could deploy content and reach new audiences.
These two giants are currently in a battle to engage with the maximum number of users, make their content accessible from anywhere (both are playable on PC, console and mobile), and enhance community creation tools to ensure the machine of creating experiences and engaging content never stops.
We’ve been there, and we’ve had the same questions: where do we start? How does it fit our product and vision? How will users learn about it?
Throughout this article, we aim to address these common doubts found during the process of developing experiences for both platforms, Roblox and Fortnite.
Fortnite, continuous evolution
What began as the “Minecraft killer” moved into the “PUBG killer” and now aims to be the “Roblox killer” with UEFN, all of this happening while killing its own initial concept during the process.
Fortnite was launched to the world in 2012, but it experienced several delays before Epic Games opted for an early-access approach. Development progressed slowly, and Unreal Engine 4 was still a newborn engine with tons of issues and limited advancements. Epic Games wanted to make their engine more attractive to a wider developer audience and compete with Unity for market share.
During this paid early access period, Fortnite underwent several reworks, idea shifts and changes in visual direction, including a rebranding. As survival sandbox games were dying and massive multiplayer games gained traction, Epic Games made the strategic decision to pivot the development and explore how battle royale version of Fortnite could fit and showcase the power of the engine. This marked the birth of Fortnite as we know it today.
Years of trends and engine upgrades have led to what we can now call the king of games as a service. Fortnite thrived in terms of users but lacked community-made content, much like what Valve had with its Counter-Strike community and what Roblox was already known for.
Today, Fortnite has changed from being just a game into an ecosystem of user-generated and playable content. You get the base of a game that is replayable, competitive and features clearly defined user progression.
Mixed with a set of tools released in 2023, it allows you to get almost the same power as an Epic Games developer when building the game. With UEFN, community-generated content is blooming and the possibilities are vast, although somewhat limited (for now).
The UEFN initiative was built on top of the game, so the developer doesn’t engage directly with the core Unreal Engine 5. Instead, you receive a framework and coding language that enables you to work with the surface level of the engine and create custom maps, modes and introduce elements from outside the game (for example, your headquarters).
The available options are already quite diverse, but with their promising roadmap, it appears that users and developers will eventually have a fully functional sub-engine within the game.
In terms of environment and experience, we find Fortnite to be very promising. However, some features in the engine remain locked. For example, developers cannot access the marketplace, and the content created is currently considered a side game rather than the main focus (for now).
Roblox, a bubble full of opportunities
Roblox has been around for more than 15 years now; it’s older than Fortnite and has always had the approach og being a casual social point. They have their own engine called Roblox Studio which comes with a complete suite of tools that allows a developer to create anything that is on their mind and have it immediately released to the public.
For over a decade, they have been building what is now the behemoth of viral content and a meme generator for the new generations. Roblox began to thrive with significant exposure when it came a meme on TikTok and other platforms, showcasing absurd situations and parodies from TV shows and films.
Indeed, this social and for-fun approach, combined with a versatile toolkit suit that empowers users to build on top of the engine, has created a tsunami of content. This surge of content is not only driving but also popularizing the paltform, which continously receives updates and more accessibility tools.
In contrast to Fortnite, Roblox features an open marketplace fully of community creations that range from the creative to the simple, and from the original to the branded. The community has established an internal marketplace that operates on the Robux currency, and it thrives.
This profitability allows top creators to earn income and continue producing content on the platform.
Those who are part of the UGC program take full advantage of the features, while those who are not can still create tons of content for millions of users.
Roblox has positioned itself as a top social app that targets young audience, encouraging them to connect and have fun together.
Both are great but, what sets them apart?
Event though both platforms have millions of daily users, they have some critical differences when it comes to end-user features and developer utilities. Let’s explore these differences!
End user comparison
What’s different on the end-user side?
Target audience
- Roblox
Roblox has a younger audience, mainly targeted to people from 8 to 17. Several reports state that even kids as young as 6 years old play on the platform.
- Fortnite
Fortnite has an older target audience, composed mainly of teens and young adults. This is mainly due to the fact that Fortnite has more advanced controls and mechanics.
Main purpose
- Roblox
Roblox has a very strong emphasis on social gathering and provides an overall simple and friendly experience. It has a for fun social spirit.
- Fortnite
UEFN and the community content inherit all the mechanics of a First-Person Shooter and also all the base gameplay the game has in all the community content. It has a competitive spirit.
Types of gameplay
- Roblox
Roblox allows users to build virtually anything, so you can expect everything from Treasure Hunts to Fighting Arenas, Adventures and Shooting games with different types and goals.
- Fortnite
Fortnite offers a wide range of experiences that are either multiplayer, solo, limited to a certain amount of players, or team-based. But they always adhere to the boundaries that UEFN allows and use components from Fortnite.
Devices
- Roblox
Roblox can be accessed from PC, Mobile, Consoles and VR.
- Fortnite
Fortnite can be accessed from PC, Mobile, Consoles and Cloud.
Bundle Size
- Roblox
Roblox only sizes 10MB on PC, making it incredibly lightweight and accessible even for "potato" computers. On average, it's recommended that your computer has 1GB of free space and has some basic RAM settings. It’s also available for Mobile and Console with a discrete bundle size.
- Fortnite
Fortnite requires around 50GB to have the base game running, and around 15GB extra for the UEFN. It also requires a more powerful PC but runs perfectly optimized on Console and Mobile.
Developer comparison
How developers are impacted by each platform?
Engine
- Roblox
Roblox uses a proprietary engine, called Roblox Studio, which offers a complete development suite for developers. They have their own pipeline and custom rules to create content.
- Fortnite
Fortnite runs on Unreal 5, making it extremely powerful through their UEFN editor. The engine is well-established in the industry and familiar to most developers.
Visuals
- Roblox
It’s lightweight and more “basic” at the beginning but also more flexible from the start. Developers can freely set art directions and introduce enhancements through the engine.
- Fortnite
UEFN offers out-of-the-box enhancements and setups, making it easy to create stunning environment with Fortnite’s art direction. Creating custom objects also takes advantage of being very similar to standard Unreal development.
Editor
- Roblox
With time, Roblox has established its own editor pipeline, which is different from Unity’s and Unreal’s way of understanding entities and handling components in the scene.
- Fortnite
The game uses an extension called UEFN to create content on top of the game base. It’s based on the Unreal Engine pipeline, so any developer familiar with the engine is automatically familiar with UEFN.
Language
- Roblox
Lua is the language of choice for Roblox development, making the adoption on the engine language very easy as Lua is a widely supported.
- Fortnite
UEFN uses a middle-ground language called Verse, which is a mix of different concepts for the coding structure. It aims to be compatible cross-engine and as effective as the other languages.
Marketplace
- Roblox
Roblox has a gated but open marketplace for creators, only requiring them to apply and be accepted in the UGC to put their creations up for sale. This allows developers to earn revenue through items and objects purchased with Robux.
- Fortnite
Fortnite doesn’t have an open market and is currently closed to exclusive Epic Games’ partners who work directly with them and have content to be sold in the Fortnite marketplace. This makes it difficult for users to sell content as they can’t create and sell custom skins, characters or items using V-Bucks.
Here's a summary table comparing the specifications of Roblox and Fortnite:
I’m not a builder at all
Don’t worry, we've got you covered. Book a call anytime you feel so, and let’s discuss your idea and how we can bring it to real life together!
Where do I start?
If Fortnite appeals more to me
Start building right away and create amazing stuff on Fortnite by getting it on the Epic Games Store.
Roblox is interesting, let’s go
Start building anything you imagine in Roblox with their software suite.
- Download Roblox
- Start building with Roblox Creator Hub
Choose your fighter
This decade is shaping up to be a fierce battle for users, resources and community engagement on a global scale between Roblox and Fortnite. The latter is younger but features a team with a strong background in game engines, while Roblox offers the most accessible tools.
We have already explored and experimented with both platforms and have found them to be excellent, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Both are solid products that can empower individuals to leap forward and create content.
They both represent the digitalization of society, and we can anticipate more brands joining in as a new means of accessing mass audiences.
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